Thalia: All Grace, Partial Grace, Yet Not Grace
by TheWorldBookGirl
Summary: "Only three years later would her favorite student disappear, would she realize who that man really was, and would she begin to wonder–note that I said begin, as in the wondering would continue–what truly happened to Thalia Grace."
1. Katherine Soleil

**I wanted to do a fic that focused around Thalia's earlier life. And just to let you guys know for future chapters, I've got all of the woven parts planned out already. By woven, I mean...well, like how RR made Thalia and Jason be siblings. Or how the gorgons are after Percy in revenge for Medusa's death. That kind of stuff. Or...OH! The best example yet. How in TSoM Percy and Annabeth met Hylla and how Reyna saw them on Calypso's island, then Reyna happens to be Praetor for the twelfth legion. You see what I mean? How one thing leads to the next? I'm not just throwing random things into this story.**

**I don't own PJO/HoO, and now that I think about it, I don't want to. The books would never be done on time, no one would read them, and they would just plain stink. In my opinion, of course.**

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><p>"Okay, kids. Time to pack up!" Katherine called to her class of first graders. Her red floral print dress flowed around her knees as she did her daily end-of-school routine of cleaning up after free time while the kids put their stuff away. She finished picking up the room just as the last of the stragglers hurried out the door. Katherine then began marking papers and doing her other duties. At about five forty-five she made her way to the door, the soft padding of her flats being the only sound in the room.<p>

She made her way to the door, passing a desk with a drawing on it. She must have missed it. The teacher picked up the picture and checked the initials on the back. _T.G._ The kids barely knew how to write yet, so instead of having them write their full name, Katherine had just taught each one of them how to write their initials. She flipped the paper over, back to the front.

The picture was split in two, both parts with three people. The first one was of two adults and a child. The father and daughter looked similar with their blue eyes and black hair. The mother was blond with hazel eyes. They all seemed to be smiling, but there was something off about that drawing. The grey background seemed to be darker near the woman, and she seemed to be holding a green bottle in one hand. None of the smiles appeared to be genuine. The girl seemed to be staying closer to the man, as if she preferred him. Katherine could relate. But the next image was quite curious indeed.

It seemed to be the same girl, just a few years older. Maybe twelve? She was standing in between a young girl with blonde hair and a blonde-haired boy who seemed to be older than the girl in the middle. They all had their arms around each other and were smiling genuinely.

What was the oddest though (even if it wasn't odd to Katherine, it was still odd for a first grader's picture), was that each of the kids carried a weapon. Katherine brought it with her as she walked out the door. She would bring it back with her tomorrow. Still immersed in her thoughts of the drawing, Katherine pushed open the school doors and stepped out into the fiery light of the sun setting in May. The front steps should have been empty but one lone student was sitting on the bottom step, almost in tears.

"Thalia," Katherine called to the young girl. The seven-year-old turned around sharply.

"Oh. Miss Soleil. It's you."

Katherine walked up to the girl and sat down next to her on the steps. "Is this yours?"

Thalia looked over at the drawing and nodded. Katherine handed it to her. "What are these pictures?" she inquired.

"The first one is my mommy and my daddy and me. Mommy says that I look like daddy, so I made him look like me. Mommy is holding one of her bottles. I don't know what's in the bottles, but it makes her more mean. I'm next to daddy because I like him more than my mommy. The other one is from a dream I had. I'm older, and I have friends. Luke and Annabeth."

"That's interesting. Do you have these dreams often?"

"Nope," the little girl shook her head. "Just last night."

"Oh. Why are you still here? All the other kids left three hours ago."

"My mommy only picks me up usually because she comes home this way from work. She sees me and then she remembers. Today she didn't go to work and James told me he didn't want to be my friend, so I couldn't go with him."

"I can drop you off." At this, Thalia looked up, her big blue eyes shining with hope.

"Really? I can?"

"Of course. I think I know where your house is. Come on."

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><p>Katherine started up the car and turned on the radio. It began playing <em>Route 66<em> by Chuck Barry. Both occupants of the car sang along with it and three others, laughing and talking, until they reached Thalia's house. Katherine glanced to the back seat to see Thalia looking slightly forlorn.

"Is this your house?"

Thalia nodded. Little did Katherine know that Thalia was scared of the awful things that might happen once she entered the house and saw her mom.

"Bye, Miss Soleil."

"Bye, Thalia. I'll see you on Monday."

As Thalia opened the car door, a man stepped out of the house. A man, Katherine noticed, who looked exceedingly like Thalia. Thalia's eyes became wide and shone with happiness. "Daddy!" the girl shouted, throwing herself at her father. Just as Katherine Soleil started to pull out of the driveway, the man nodded at her respectfully and said, "Thank you."

Katherine smiled and returned the nod. She drove home to her husband and three-year-old daughter. Only three years later would her favorite student disappear. Only three years later would she realize who that man really was. And only three years later would she truly wonder what begin to wonder–note that I said _begin_, as in the wondering would continue–what became of Thalia Grace.

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><p>Miss Soleil (the best teacher <em>ever<em>, in Thalia's mind) drove away and Thalia pulled herself away from her dad to wave at her. "Daddy! You're back! That's Miss Soleil. She's my teacher. Mommy didn't pick me up today, so she drove me home. It was fun. She's really nice. I like her. Why did you come back? I never met you, but Mommy talked about you a few times. She said I look just like you, and that she always wished that you would come back from O-lym-pus." She sounded out each syllable of the word carefully, trying to make her dad proud that she could say such a word so well.

Her father–her mother said his name was Zeus–laughed as they walked through the door. "I came back to see you and your mother, of course."

"Why didn't you come before?"

"My brothers don't know about you, and if they did know about you, they would never approve of you. Not because you're bad. You are a _very_ good girl, Thalia. You are the best daughter a god could have. And you will be very heroic and brave one day. You will be a part of saving the world. But they wouldn't like that you're my daughter. That's why I had to go, so that you would be protected. If they knew about you, awful things would happen."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, Thalia. I wouldn't ever let anything happen to you if I can help it."

Today had been a great day. She hadn't seen her mother in the morning, she'd managed to make her own lunch and gotten the chauffeur (who only ever worked until two) to drive her to school, James had gotten sick (ha-ha, revenge!), she'd had a fun time with her teacher, and her father was back. Thalia threw her arms around him.

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><p><strong>If, for some very strange reason, you want to flame this story, remember this: flames will be laughed at by me and my friends, then they will be deleted after we've wiped out faces of tears and we've gotten off the floor because our legs gave out because we were laughing so hard. :)<br>**


	2. Three Hopes

**Thalia's gonna be a cute, trusting little girl for the next few chaps. I just wanted to let you know in case you thought she was OOC.**

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><p>Thalia rode in the car to school. But today was different. Her dad was visiting and he was the one driving. They'd talked for a while, then there'd been some silence, but he'd broken it by asking, "Thalia, what do you think about having a little brother."<p>

Thalia pondered the question for a while then replied, "I don't know. It would be nice, I guess. I never really thought about it before. Why?"

"Because yesterday your mom came home from work and told me that you're going to have a baby brother."

"Wow. What's he going to be named?" Thalia was suddenly really excited.

"I haven't thought about it. What do you think?"

"What about a hero's name? I know he'll be a hero when he grows up. Someone who'll make history."

"Jason? He went on a quest for the Golden Fleece. Very heroic, he was."

"Yeah! Jason. I like that. Jason Grace. It sounds nice together."

"Then Jason it is. Get on out. You don't want to be late for your last day of school."

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><p>"Okay, everyone. We're going to do an activity first. You'll each get a piece of paper. On that paper, you're going to draw a picture and write one word about it underneath. This picture and word has to be something that you're looking forward to for next year. Here's an example."<p>

Miss Soleil drew a picture on the chalkboard. It was a classroom with stick figures sitting in the seats and a stick figure woman with a dress was at the chalkboard. Underneath, she wrote something that was hard for Thalia to read. Her dad had said that was because of something called dyslexia.

"Can everyone say the word out loud?"

"Sec-ond," the class read out together in unison.

"Exactly. Can any of you guess what that means?"

A white-blonde girl with purple-rimmed glasses raised her hand. Her name was Sophia. Once called on, she guessed, "You're going to teach second grade next year?"

Miss Soleil beamed. "Yes, I am. And some of you will be lucky enough to get me as your teacher." The small part of Thalia that was depressed about leaving her teacher behind perked up. She hoped so badly she would get Miss Soleil.

The papers were passed out. One fluttered down and rested in front of her. James, Alex, Hailey, and Jade were all immediately engrossed in their drawings. Thalia had to think about it for a while. Then she smiled and began.

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><p>The class took turns telling the class what their pictures meant. It almost melted Katherine's heart (though not in sadness) to learn that so many of the kids wanted her as their teacher again next year. Some were getting a new pet. Others were looking forward to dance classes. Sophia was looking forward to learning to read harder books next year. James couldn't wait until his birthday in September, when he'd be getting a pranking kit that he'd wanted or a long time.<p>

And then there was Thalia. Like so many of the others, she wanted Katherine as her teacher again. But the way she displayed it was quite unique. The word was "Solyay", but she probably had meant "_Soleil_". It would naturally be hard for her. A dyslexic English-speaking kid who'd just learned to spell her whole family's names a year ago could barely be expected to suddenly have perfect French spelling.

"I want Miss Soleil as my teacher next year. That's why I wrote her last name. My dad can speak Latin, and he said that French was based off of Latin. Then I told him that Miss Soleil's last name is French, and he told me that it means sun. Plus, I think she's beautiful and bright, like the sun." Katherine smiled. Little Thalia didn't even know the half of it.

"My mommy drinks a drink that makes her mean, but my daddy has tried to stop her from drinking it, and if she does stop, then she will always be nice, which is exactly what I want and what I drew and wrote. No drink, and nice.

"Then I have a baby boy and the word Jason. My mommy's going to have a baby boy, and my dad and I thought it should be named Jason, like the Greek hero." Katherine smiled. That was wonderful. Maybe if Thalia's mother had a baby, there would be something else that would have to keep her sober.

No one knew how much closer Jason would bring teacher and student together.


	3. Three Hopes pt 2

**Here it is, chapter 3.**

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><p>Thalia was sitting on the floor of he bedroom, painting a picture of her dad, her mom, and herself gathered around a little baby. He would have little blue eyes that were just like Thalia's. She finished adding the last touches to the painting and set it out to dry. She idled the rest of that summer's morning running through the sprinkler in her swimsuit out on the front lawn. When she came downstairs for lunch, she brought her painting with her.<p>

"Mommy, look what I made! It's our whole family. Me, you, Daddy, and Jason."

"That's wonderful, sweetheart." She walked over to the fridge and pulled down the one magnet that didn't have some sort of bill or form under it. "Why don't you put it up where we can all see it, hm?"

Thalia nodded and picked out a spot that was just barely in her reach; the very center of the refrigerator. Perfect. She went to eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When she was done and full, her mom took her to Target to pick out new school clothes.

Thalia chose the ones that wouldn't make her stand out too much, but weren't as girly as all the other girls' clothes were bound to be. She chose a few pairs of jeans, a few t-shirts, and a nicer shirt for the first day of school. Perfect. She was all set for second grade.

On the way back home, they stopped off at Thalia's school where the class lists were being given out. _Please, please, please_, was what Thalia thought over and over while they were in line. She held her breath as her mom reached out to receive Thalia's class list. And it was…

"Miss Katherine Soleil. That's your second grade teacher. She's in room nine." Thalia could barely keep her excitement inside her as they drove home. Especially when she saw her father standing on the steps of the house. He'd come to visit again. The last time he'd visited, he'd talked her mom out of the drink.

Two of her hopes were complete. But would the third be?

Thalia sat down on the couch a day later. The next day would be the first day of school. She turned on the TV and found herself watching some celebrity news channel. The only reason she didn't flip the channel was because the first image that flicked up was of she and her mom the day before in Target.

"…actress has rarely been seen happy, much less out and about with her seven-year-old daughter. Last year, one of Thalia Grace's hopes for this upcoming school year was to see her mom sober and nice. Does this mean her mother has abused her in some way? And what has made Ms. Grace so happy? Well, that's up next, after the break."

Thalia could hardy believe it. Why should these people care what was going on in their lives? Why couldn't they just care about _their_ beeswax?

Thalia's dad picked her up right after school one day in late February, but instead of going in the direction home, he drove somewhere else, but Thalia couldn't think of where. She eventually became so excited in this guessing game that she began gripping the seat in front of her and shouting out guesses.

"Thalia! Enough! Sit back down, put your seatbelt on, and stop yelling." Once she'd done just that, Zeus (Jupiter, rather–Thalia didn't know he was Jupiter, though) continued. "We're going to the hospital."

"You mean–Oh my gods!" She'd picked that phrase up from her mom.

•••

Late that night, Thalia woke up to her father gently shaking her awake. "The nurse says we can go in now."

It took a while for the words to register, but once they did, Thalia forgot all about being tired. She instantaneously felt invigorated. She practically dragged her father down the hall to her mother's room. When they cracked the door open and peeked in, they saw Ms. Grace looking down into a little bundle. Thalia crept in with her father just behind her.

"Mommy?"

"Take a look at your little brother, Thalia."

Thalia strode to her mother's bedside and found herself bent over, her black hair falling around her face. There he was. Little Jason. His tiny little eyes were squinting, his itsy-bitsy mouth slightly agape. Thalia was overfilled with joy. Everything in her life was perfect. She had Miss Soleil, her mother was nice, she now had a baby brother, and her whole family was together. A sense of euphoria passed over Thalia. It was perfect. It felt right. And she knew it would always stay like this. _Always._


	4. Famous Last Words

Famous last words. Nothing could stay perfect forever. Her parents had taught her how to care for Jason so that Thalia was able to help him when needed. These skills were later found vastly important in her and her brother's struggle. It began in late March, when her mother began asking for favors from her dad. Thalia still went to school, and everything was still fine. But one chore changed that all.

"Thalia, honey?" Ms. Grace called upstairs. "Could you get the garbage? The truck will be coming any minute."

"Sure," Thalia called back down. She tore herself away from her schoolwork. It wasn't actually that bad. They'd begun studying mythology in different cultures (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hindu, etc.) and Thalia had found that she was quite significant in the subject.

She took out the garbage like she was supposed to, but when it hit the bottom of the outside bin she heard glass break in the bag, making her breath catch. Thalia didn't even have to glance in the bag to know what broke. She'd heard that sound often enough before. It was the sound of one of her mom's drinks (that she now knew was called either beer, wine, or champagne) being cracked and splintered.

Her mother had started to drink.

And when her mother had one drink,

She soon had more.

The next incident was in mid April. Thalia's parents had been fighting, and Zeus had stormed out. (No pun intended.) Thalia was crouched in a corner of her room, crying. It was a scary fight that they'd had. It was one of those fights that would make her mom drink. Once she was sure the dispute was over, Thalia wiped away her tears and tried to get to sleep, but it wouldn't come.

The next day at school, Miss Soleil brought her off to the side during break when she'd almost hit one of the other kids on the playground.

"Are you okay, Thalia?"

Thalia didn't say anything. She just looked down at the rubber ground beneath her feet.

"What happened?"

Thalia could feel tears battling their way out of her eyes, surfacing at the corners of her eyes, and finally running a fifty-meter dash to the end of her face, only to fall down the cliff to their deaths.

"Thalia, I will do whatever's in my power to help."

Thalia couldn't answer. The tears that had decided to cut the race short had dried on her face, and her sobs were choking her. All she could do was hug her teacher. That was all that needed to be said. It made Thalia feel better, just having someone there.

What finally drove Zeus out wasn't a fight; it was a war. There was no way that any amount of saying "sorry" or "I need you" would be able to fix it. It happened on the last day of May. The fights had gradually been getting more and more frequent; Zeus' visits becoming less frequent, Thalia's anger and fright building up inside of her more and more.

Thalia had sensed the final battle rousing, so she'd rescued her four-month-old brother, claiming that he was lonely. She readied a bottle of milk then brought him into her room, keeping him safely away from the skirmish, watching as he played as much as he could at that age.

When the shouts arose, the baby began crying. Thalia cradled him to her chest, bringing up her knees so that her forearms rested against her thighs. "Don't worry, Jason. I'm here. I'll protect you with my life. Part of me would die if anything happened to you. Sh, it's okay. I'm here. I'm here," she whispered soothingly to him. She began to sing a lullaby she remembered as if from a dream. It was in a tongue, but Thalia could understand it fine. It was filled with words of hope, thought that were unexplainable, and dizzying rivers of emotion. Though Jason was merely months old, he still managed to look inexplicably confused, as if Thalia were speaking a language from another galaxy instead of a language native to Earth.

Thalia didn't know where the song came from, but she supposed her father must have once sung it to her before he left the first time. She didn't know why she could understand the lyrics, either. Life had recently begun to become a jigsaw with pieces missing; mostly full, but with some holes that showed nothing.

Eventually Thalia heard the heavy footsteps of her father nearing. He wrenched open the door, most probably still furious. "Thalia," he said, "take care of your brother. I will see you soon enough, though I'm afraid only the Fates know exactly when that will be. I'm sorry, but all great heroes have had a troubling past. You will be one of the greatest among this generation. Jason as well."

"Daddy?" she whispered. But it was too late. He was gone for good.


End file.
